


Bucky Barnes Vs. DUM-E

by ThanksForTheVenom



Series: Bucky Barnes Vs [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bot Feels, Bot Love, Brainwashing, Flashbacks, Gen, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 15:16:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2433470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThanksForTheVenom/pseuds/ThanksForTheVenom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky meets Dummy for the first time. It doesn't go well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Tony invited Bucky down to his workshop every day. He invited everyone done every day, usually by having JARVIS issue a mass text saying “come dwn 2 wrkshp doing science is vry cool cme c”. 

If there was anything Tony liked more than doing science, it was having an audience to do science for.

Bucky usually ignored the invites. It wasn't that Tony was annoying or anything. He didn't dislike the guy. Well, he'd never met the guy, so maybe he would dislike him. Just then, he had no opinion either way on Anthony Stark.

Honestly, he was too exhausted to have an opinion on anything. He had individual therapy every other day, including weekends, group therapy three days a week, and exposure therapy at least once a week and sometimes twice, if he was making good progress.

He was tired. 

Scooping out his brain for his therapist to see and poke at and prod was unpleasant and he kind of hated her for forcing him to remember some of the things that he'd done in the past. 

Half the time, after two hours of talk therapy, when he gets back to the tower he’s too exhausted to do anything more than collapse onto one of the couches and wait for Clint to come back from his therapy, so they can numb their brains together with hours of video games. Steve usually seeks him out and rubs his head or makes him eat a sandwich, but doesn’t pry into what he talked about that day. Bucky is pretty grateful to Sam for whatever he said to Steve about asking Bucky about it. Bucky is pretty grateful for Sam regardless. He’s a good guy, and he takes very good care of Steve, which is nice, because that means that Bucky doesn't have to anymore. 

He doesn't remember much from before, but the Winter Soldier is constantly in the back of his mind whispering: Steve is the Mission. Somewhere killing Steve and protecting Steve got all jumbled together. Half the time Bucky wants to kill him because Steve had thrown himself out of another window. One day he yells at Steve, "How am I supposed to fulfill my mission if you keep trying to kill yourself?!"

He tried not to think too hard about that day. 

This week though, Stark had conveyed a personal invitation. He did it the same day he handed Bucky his brand new, JARVIS-enhanced phone. Bucky had refused at first, because the workshop was one area of the tower that Bucky hadn’t been yet, and so it felt private. Also, he wasn't sure how he would react to it. Sometimes, even the vaguest descriptions of laboratories were enough to set off the Winter Soldier, and Bucky would never forgive himself if he did anything to hurt any person who lived in this tower, not after they were all so nice to him.

Tony had insisted though, and since it had coincided with him graduating to the next level of therapy, which was three one-on-ones instead of every other day, he had decided to just bite the bullet and go down there.

It was just as amazing as Steve had described. The entire room was awash in blue light from the holographs, and the music Tony had on was like a wall of sound. Later, Tony would teach him all about the Dead Kennedy’s, but that day marked the beginning of a long love affair between Bucky and punk rock.

The workshop was everything that Bucky had imagined the future would be, and then some. Even the music, that was so pissed off that Bucky could taste it, seemed to fit just perfectly.

JARVIS turned down the music and announced his presence to Tony, who had half his body inside an Iron Man suit. He crawled down from the contraption that was holding the suit off the floor, and whirled to greet him. He spread his arms and gestured to the whole of the room, “Welcome to where the magic happens. Glad you could finally make it down here, Barnes. I was beginning to think that I smelled, which is just ridiculous.”

Tony’s smile was so contagious that Bucky found himself smiling back, without even thinking about it. 

Bucky turned back to the rest of the workshop and just gestured, aimlessly. He was still too shocked to speak. 

Tony smiled even wider at his silence, “I know, right? Wait til you see this though.”

He whistled to a corner, where it looked like a bunch of junk had been piled. The junk began to move towards them, and Bucky was finally able to differentiate the junk from the ‘bot that was approaching. 

Tony spoke to JARVIS, “Make sure you get this reaction on the camera and send it to Steve because this is the appropriate reaction to my genius.”

"Yes, sir. Whatever you say, sir," JARVIS deadpanned. 

The ‘bot got closer and Bucky and it looked at each other curiously. Bucky started to reach out to touch it, but then looked hesitantly at Tony, asking silent permission. 

"Oh, yeah, touch him. He loves attention, just like a big old dog, isn't that right?" 

Tony introduced them, “Barnes meet Dummy. Dummy meet Barnes. Now, shake, Dummy.”

Dummy held out his claw and Bucky reached out with his left hand automatically. The Red Room had conditioned him to introduce himself with his left hand as an intimidation tactic. His therapist had told him to do whatever felt the most natural and they would tackle the conditioning in order of most to least dangerous, and “intimidation” was quite a bit below “kill on sight”.  
Dummy shook and Bucky smiled.

The ‘bot, however, wasn't willing to give up a brand new piece of tech so easily and began to pull.

Bucky saw white and it felt like his brain had just been plunged into an icy lake, as the Winter Soldier took over. Any threat to the arm automatically triggered the Winter Soldier. 

Bucky was in the back seat, only able to watch and scream as the Winter Soldier attempted to take back the arm.

He could hear Tony asking what was wrong but couldn't answer. 

Everything was white and cold and cold and white, like Russia during the winter and he was screaming because he was back in Russia, back in the chair, back in surgery where they cut off his arm and he could smell his flesh burning and there was red everywhere when he made his first kill and and and

and he was lying on the workshop floor looking at the ceiling. Tony was next to him repeating, “You're name is Bucky Barnes. You are in Manhattan, New York, in the United State of America. The year is 2014 and you are safe.”

He blinked.

"Oh, thank god, I thought we'd broken you, Barnes," he gasped out. Tony had refrained from touching him though the entire episode, but couldn't stop himself now. "I’m going to hold your hand, let me know if that's not okay."

Bucky just nodded, and Tony grabbed his hand and held on tight, as Bucky poured himself back into his own mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky tried not to think of it as "hiding" from Tony. He was definitely not hiding. He was performing a tactical retreat everytime he saw Tony heading towards him.

If it looked like he was hiding because he had smushed himself into the fireplace chimney at least once, well, that was just schematics. (It was actually twice and the third time he'd tried he'd found the chimney blocked off with bricks. Then, Steve had tattled on him to his therapist.)

He was definitely not hiding when Dummy found him inside one of the Tower's conveniently sized control panels, that were placed in the walls for easy access.

The sound he made was not a shriek. (Natasha had been tailing the rogue 'bot, and she got the entire encounter on video. She files it later in her secret laptop, under a password protected file named: Blackmail Material. The majority of the documents are of Clint in varying shades of undress.)

Dummy whirred and poked him on the chest with his closed claw. Bucky quickly stepped out of the wall and makes to edge around the 'bot, when Dummy gently pokes him again and whirrs. JARVIS decided the to speak up, before the whole thing could devolve into a splatter of motor oil and blood. 

"Mr. Barnes, Dummy has something to give to you. He broke out of the workshop in order to hand it to you himself. Sir has been informed and is on his way, but I suggest you take whatever it is because otherwise this will probably happen again. Dummy can be quite stubborn."

Bucky gapes at the ceiling and then at the 'bot. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't try to steal my arm again."

He holds out his right hand, in order to not tempt Dummy again. Dummy pours a handful of metal objects into his palm.

"What is this?" Bucky shifts though the pile and then looked up confused. "What's with the nuts and bolts?"

Dummy points to his left arm and pushes this other hand towards it.

"Wait. Are these for my arm? Like replacement parts?"

Dummy whirrs and makes a nodding motion towards his metal arm. 

In his shock, Bucky dropped a bolt on the ground. Dummy bent down to pick it up for him before Bucky even realized it had fallen. Dummy placed it in his hand.

Bucky considered the 'bot and then the bolt, and then he tossed the bolt across the hallway. Dummy chirped and dashed after it. Dummy once again placed it gently in his hand.

What they are doing, when Tony races in, can only be described as "fetch" with Bucky tossing a bolt for Dummy to chase after. Tony leans against the hallway wall, clutching his chest. "You two are going to be the death of me, I can tell."

Natasha only laughs at him, as she pats him on the back. "There, there, Stark. It could be worse."

"What? How could this," he makes a gesture at Bucky and Dummy, "possibly be worse?"

Natasha leans in conspiratorily, "Dummy could've bonded with Barton."

Tony pales at the thought of that. It was bad enough that the Hulk has claimed Clint for his own, if Dummy did too there would be no end to Barton's absurd antics. Just last week he and The Hulk had ripped out half the venting on the south side of the tower, under the guise of "unknown noises in the walls" which turned out to be nothing, with Clint standing off to the side, with a smirk on his face. 

"Yeah, you know what, you two continue playing. That's cool. Barnes, just return him to the workshop when his battery is low, and try to keep the destruction to a minimum. JARVIS, you're on bot-watch."

"I will do my very best, Sir," JARVIS acknowledges.

Tony flashes a peace sign and high tails it out of there before he can over think that plan. None of the scenarios running through his brain are very good, but he's willing to be wrong in this instance. Besides, he always knew Dummy would eventually need more friends, he had just thought he had a little more time before having to deal with his little 'bot growing up.

Natasha catches Bucky's attention and tosses him a ball. Bucky would ask where she pulled it from, but he's a smarter man than that so he held his tongue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And all is well again.


End file.
